DON’T YOU HAVE much more faith in ideas that you discover for yourself than in
ideas that are handed to you on a silver platter? If so, isn’t it bad judgement to
try to ram your opinions down the throats of other people? Isn’t it wiser to make
suggestions – and let the other person think out the conclusion?
Adolph Seltz of Philadelphia, sales manager in an automobile showroom and
a student in one of my courses, suddenly found himself confronted with the
necessity of injecting enthusiasm into a discouraged and disorganised group of
automobile salespeople. Calling a sales meeting, he urged his people to tell him
exactly what they expected from him. As they talked, he wrote their ideas on the
blackboard. He then said: ‘I’ll give you all these qualities you expect from me.
Now I want you to tell me what I have a right to expect from you.’ The replies
came quick and fast: loyalty, honesty, initiative, optimism, teamwork, eight
hours a day of enthusiastic work. The meeting ended with a new courage, a new
inspiration – one salesperson volunteered to work fourteen hours a day – and Mr.
Seltz reported to me that the increase of sales was phenomenal.
‘The people had made a sort of moral bargain with me,’ said Mr. Seltz, ‘and
as long as I lived up to my part in it, they were determined to live up to theirs.
Consulting them about their wishes and desires was just the shot in the arm they
needed.’
No one likes to feel that he or she is being sold something or told to do a
thing. We much prefer to feel that we are buying of our own accord or acting on
our own ideas. We like to be consulted about our wishes, our wants, our
thoughts.
Take the case of Eugene Wesson. He lost countless thousands of dollars in
commissions before he learned this truth. Mr. Wesson sold sketches for a studio
that created designs for stylists and textile manufacturers. Mr. Wesson had called
on one of the leading stylists in New York once a week, every week for three
years. ‘He never refused to see me,’ said Mr. Wesson, ‘but he never bought. He
always looked over my sketches very carefully and then said: “No, Wesson, I
guess we don’t get together today.”’
After 150 failures, Wesson realised he must be in a mental rut, so he resolved
joyce
(Joyce)
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